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Tag: health IT challenges

Our mission is to deliver riveting digital experiences for our healthcare clients. A new year always inspires a fresh look, and 2018 will bring a new (as well as continuing) set of challenges for healthcare executives. If you want to know what healthcare leaders are most concerned about, just ask them. Surveyors for Managed Healthcare Executive and the PwC Health Institute did precisely that.

The 2 Surveys Disclosed 5 Challenges

This post summarizes 5 Health IT challenges healthcare executives say are still top of their hit parade.

Only 12% of the survey responders reported that their organization is excelling in scooping up and harvesting all the data they generate and can harvest from other sources. While the percentage remains static from the 2016 survey, 46% of the respondents report they have come “a long way” in this area—up from 39% from last year.

Handicapping that progress is that, even though more healthcare data is generated, the information is scattered across multiple sources—patients, providers, and payers. There is no single source for healthcare data. Patients migrate between different health plans or providers, but the data does not follow them.

Most organizations do not have the technology to capitalize on big data. It is everywhere, but it is locked in silos with different formats and, again, from a variety of sources. To get at it, organizations need the big data technology infrastructure to get it, store it, and analyze it at a scale that is useable.

Our take on implications for healthcare clients: New ways to manage big data are growing at an explosive rate. It is all about aligning business goals with the technology. Rivet Logic’s big data solutions leverage the power of MongoDB to get a focused view of opportunities for cost reduction along with increases in productivity.

Challenge #2. Value-based Reimbursement Initiatives are lagging.

Value-based programs reward healthcare providers with incentive payments for the quality of care they provide to Medicare patients. Organizations continue to struggle in this area because the traditional fee-for-service system does not mesh well to a metrics- and outcome-driven value-based care approach. Also, delivering value-based care requires new infrastructure, workflow, and information sources, which are vastly different from those already in place.

How Rivet Logic can help you to migrate from fee-for-service to value-driven value-based care: Improving the patient experience is at the core of value-based care. Organizations need better collaborative processes and tools and the right mix of tools, which promote transparency and better internal communication.

That communication relies on patient profile management and turning the customer experience into a single data gathering session, which does not have to involve information overlap in data silos. For a detailed view of that process, download our data sheet to learn more about how address customer identity management.

Challenge #3. Patient experience must be a priority and not just a portal.

Just under half (49 percent) of provider executives reported that one of their top three priorities during the upcoming years will be revamping the patient experience. That effort will require healthcare organizations to “connect data points across and beyond the organization to understand how the patient’s experience fits” into the business.

Again, executives agree that it all centers around bringing in multiple data sets. It requires “governing them, establishing ownership, and utilizing them to provide a real time, actionable information about the patient.”

Connectivity is the key. The patient experience is being transformed by technology. A connected health system requires better engagement of everyone—providers, their employees, and, most importantly, the patient. Digital solutions, like patient portals and mobile applications are supplanting visits to the office. Patients can self-monitor their conditions and transmit diagnostics over their smartphones. For more insight on this challenge and how Rivet Logic can help with that connectivity, download our data sheet to learn more about enabling better care with a connected health system.

Challenge #4. Securing the Internet of Things.

PwC predicts that there will be more cybersecurity breaches. So, hospitals and health systems need to be educated and prepared. PwC reported that 95 percent of the surveyed executives believed their organization is protected. However, only 36 percent had management access policies in place. Worse yet, only 34 percent could point to a cybersecurity audit process.

Managed Services is one solution. Rivet Logic provides a flexible and scalable array of automated processes, services, and on-demand infrastructure designed to reduce IT costs without sacrificing quality or security.

Challenge #5. Artificial intelligence will be a healthcare coworker.

Healthcare employees function best when automation takes over tiring, labor-intensive tasks. An average of 70 to 80 percent and Business executives reported that they plan to automate routine paperwork, scheduling, timesheet entry, and accounting with AI tools. In fact, a whopping 75 percent of healthcare executives “plan to invest in AI in the next three years.”

Again, managed services provide the pathway to keeping up with developments in IT in an environment of an expected continuing shortage of healthcare professionals.

Join us March 5-9, 2018 at HIMSS18

Rivet Logic will be exhibiting at HIMSS18 in Las Vegas in the Connected Health Experience pavilion. Discussions of approaches and solutions to the above-mentioned challenges–and much, much more–will be on the agenda, including: